MK-Med-Ecc-art - 1/31/97 "Margery Kempe: A Medieval Eccentric" by Lady Isabelle de Foix. NOTE: See also the files: religion-msg, nuns-msg, heretics-msg, pilgrimages-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called StefanŐs Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author. While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file. Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: Stefan li Rous stefan@texas.net RSVE60@risc.sps.mot.com ************************************************************************ MARGERY KEMPE: A MEDIEVAL ECCENTRIC by Isabelle de Foix Margery Kempe was born in a town called Bishops-Lynn (now King's Lynn) in Norfolk around 1373. Her father, John Brunham, served in a number of prestigious political offices, including city mayor and member of Parliament. Thus, her family was of some importance in Lynn. Margery was illiterate, so she dictated her memoirs to two scribes when she was about sixty. She claimed that she dictated her memoirs only after being pestered by some clergy to recount "how a sinful wretch" went through a conversion experience and became a holy woman. The result of this collaboration was the first autobiography in the English language. There is no organization whatsoever in the book; it is a "fricasee", a "jumble of ingredients". The book is an exceptionally honest and graphic expression of Margery's mind. There are several very graphic reference to sexual activities. In her preface, she stated that she did not tell her story in chronological order; rather, she talked about each important episode in her life when she remembered it. She discussed her chastity vows before she related giving birth to her last child. She described in graphic detail her alleged visions of Jesus, Mary, and several saints. She did not say anything about her childhood; she started her autobiography with her marriage. Following the literary custom of the period, Margery referred to herself in the third person rather than the first. She referred to herself throughout the book as "this creature". In the fifteenth century, "creature" meant any "creation" of God. Everything in the book, both praise and condemnation, came straight from her mouth. She firmly believed that she was on a divine mission to save souls. Margery married John Kempe when she was about twenty, and gave birth to fourteen children. Immediately after giving birth to her first child, she experienced a mental breakdown. It has been suggested that she was afflicted with a post-partum psychosis. This illness is characterized by severe depression and spells of delirium. She engaged in self-destructive activities, and antagonized her friends and family. She was tortured with lurid visions of Hell and the Devil, until, she tells us, she received a visit from Jesus. She lapsed away from religion again, and dressed in fine fashion. She wore fine cloaks, slashed to reveal bright colors underneath, and "gold pipes" on her head. It is believed that she was referring to a crespinette, a popular head-dress of the time. To get the money to pay for her showy dress, she engaged in two business endeavors. She became a brewer, but she knew nothing about brewing ale, and she did not ferment the wort properly. She lost money as a result and gave up brewing. She also tried milling, as she had a horse-mill. Her career as a miller had quite a bizarre ending, if we are to believe the entire story..On the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi, the servant in charge of the horses was just trying to do his job. The horses mysteriously refused to pull in the mill. The servant tried his best to get the horse to continue its work, but it refused. The servant got so frustrated with the horse that he took the horse back to its stable. Then he got the other horse, but it also refused to work the mill. Margery told the scribe that the servant quit his job. She related that he was frightened at any association with her, because she was regarded as an evil women. She was involved in a sinful activity, attempting to make money. Any desire to make money during this period was viewed as greed, and it was sinful because the Church expected people to be content with whatever God had given them through natural processes. Since money did not come directly from nature, attempts to multiply it were wrong. Also, it was unconventional, to say the least, for a woman to try anything independently of their husbands. In fact, her husband disapproved of her business activities. Devastated at her failure, Margery, at this point, underwent an intense religious experience. In the pre-scientific mass psyche of the Middle Ages, religion and the supernatural in general played a major role in people's personal lives. The religion practiced by these people was an intense, emotional, guilt-ridden, almost anxious brand of Christianity. This was the age of the Flagellants, who wrapped themselves from head to toe in linen and walked the streets flailing themselves with scourges that drew blood. Others, including St. Catherine of Siena, took fasting so seriously that they starved themselves to death in hopes of avoiding the fires of Hell they feared intensely. Mary of Olgnies, from Brabant in the Netherlands, (died c. 1213) was a mystic whose story Margery was familiar with. The similarity between the two women was uncanny. Although born to wealthy parents, Mary led a life of great austerity. Married at fourteen, she and her husband lived a chaste relationship. She had various mystical experiences, during which she claimed she had visions of Jesus, Mary, and the saints. She wept at the thought of Christ's Passion. She could not look at a crucifix without fainting. She was asked to stop her weeping during mass by her priest, but the more she tried to stop weeping, the more she wept. She wept when confessing her most trivial sins. She refused to eat meat, and she always wore white clothing, which symbolized purity. Suffering, the devout believed in the Middle Ages, was the way to avoid eternal damnation. Even so, most of Margery's contemporaries thought her obsession with religion was excessive; they wished she would talk about something besides religion. Here one sees one of the more unattractive aspects of the piety of both women--exhibiting their piety and closeness to God, which, they claimed most people did not have. Margery shocked and annoyed many a person with her histrionic form of devotion. Like Mary of Olgnies, every time she sensed the presence of divinity, she would start to cry and scream uncontrollably. Margery claimed that God had encouraged in her weeping spells. She was also read important spiritual books by sympathetic priests, and she had an excellent memory. Her faith was based on meditations on the important events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, especially the painful or tragic ones. When meditating on the Jesus' crucifixion, commonly called the "Passion" by Christians, she saw him with the wounds caused by the nails. When she had this vision she would spread her arms out, weep, and yell "I die! I die!" Margery's religious convictions caused her much emotional pain, provoked by an intense feeling of guilt. She had committed a sin in her youth that she alluded to a few times but was never specific about. The sin was probably sexual in nature. While watching a procession at Corpus Christi mass, she became so emotional at the sight of the procession that she left the sanctuary to go to a nearby house. Here she screamed "I die! I die!" She absolutely roared with her weeping and screaming, and the people attending the mass were dumbfounded. What was wrong with this peculiar woman, they wondered? Some though that she was possessed by a devil, and some thought her drunk, but some people sounded astonishing modern by suggesting that she was merely ill. Needless to say, she disrupted many a mass with these bizarre outbursts, and became a persona non grata in many churches and holy places. She endured eight years of illness, after which her cries and weeping increased in intensity. Her obsession with religion was fueled by the belief that life on this earth was a transient experience full of pain and evil Margery's guilt from her sins drove her to various deeds of penance. Sometimes she confessed three times in one day. She fasted often. She frequently kept vigil at the local church. Sometimes she would go to the church at two in the morning and stay there all day. She acquired a hairshirt, and wore it frequently. She wished to live chastely with her husband, but he was unwilling. John Kempe claimed that she was trying to take his conjugal rights away from him. They finally made a "chastity agreement" while traveling together. On Midsummer's Eve (June 23), 1413, Margery and her husband journeyed to York to see the annual Mystery Play. They left York together, heading towards another town on foot. Margery carried a bottle of beer and her husband carried some cakes. They stopped to take a rest near a large cross, as the day was white with enervating heat. They had not had relations for eight weeks; this was not to John Kempe's liking, and he threatened to press for his conjugal right by the the roadside! Margery asked leave to say her prayers, and she was always to claim that God had given her the "trade-off" idea that suited them both. She agreed to resume cooking and drinking wine with him in return for a chaste relationship. After this, both knelt in prayer before a large cross. Afterwards, the couple celebrated the agreement by sitting down nearby and eating together. However, due to fear of rumors and misunderstanding in the town about the nature of their relationship, they decided to live separately, although they saw each other frequently to discuss family matters. Margery, having obtained the necessary permission from her husband, then undertook a series of pilgrimages to Rome, Compostella, in Spain, and Jerusalem. Margery was arrested several time by Church authorities. It is not clear why she irritated the authorities, but several of them believed that she was a heretic. Since the power or the Church and the Crown were intertwined, to harm one was to harm the other. One thing was clear to these authorities: Margery may have been illiterate, but she was hardly stupid. She learned much about Christian doctrine and the saints of the church from sympathetic priests Men of the time thought women lacked the intelligence to learn these things, and she proved them wrong. Also, her business activities and independence from her husband aroused suspicion. If she was capable of breaking the roles concerning her gender, might she also wreak havoc with the existing social order? The politicians of the age had a "domino theory" about heresy leading to political and social chaos. At one of her interrogations at Yorkminster a cleric who had earned a doctorate at a university asked her if she had a husband She answered in the affirmative; whereupon the doctor asked her to produce a letter of his approval of her travels. She replied that he had given her the necessary permission with his mouth, and that she had come as a pilgrim. The Archbishop asked her why she always wore white--was it because she was a virgin? "No, sir", Margery answered, "I am no virgin. I am a married woman". In fact, Margery desperately wished she had been allowed to live as a virgin. The Archbishop then ordered Margery to be bound because he was convinced that she was a heretic. It is not clear why he believed this, but he may have thought Margery's stories about her visions constituted heresy. Not surprisingly, she had a weeping spell during the interrogation; she had been praying while the Archbishop was out of the room. The Archbishop asked her why she cried so much. She answered "Sir, you shall wish one day that you had wept as acutely as I". Many a person present was shocked to see an illiterate woman argue with the Archbishop of York. They had never seen such a thing. No one ever accused Margery of false modesty! Her spiritual egotism certainly did not help her reputation as far as the Church was concerned, but she won many supporters through her piety. The more people heard about Margery, they either revered her as a visionary or thought her an instrument of sin and heresy. In 1421 there was a huge fire in Bishops' Lynn. It burned down several buildings in the city. It threatened the whole town, Margery tells us. For once the townspeople encouraged her in her histrionic form of devotion, hoping for help from God in putting out the fire. A priest asked her is he should walk towards the fire holding a container with consecrated Hosts (communion wafers) in it. She advised him to do this; he walked towards the fire, holding the Hosts, and then walked back into the church, surrounded by flying sparks of the fire. Margery followed him and noticed the sparks. Soon she started to weep, crying out to God for mercy. Three men entered the church wearing cloaks which were covered with snowflakes. They told her that God had sent the snow to save Bishop's Lynn from destruction by fire. Margery aspired to sainthood, and she believed that this was a miracle which could be attributed to her. However, Margery has not been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Margery's husband died in 1431. He died after a nasty fall down the stairs in their home in Lynn. The neighbors found him "lying with his head twisted under himself, half alive, all streaked in blood".... Shortly afterwards Margery was informed of the accident. She broke out of her religious contemplation and rushed to their home in Lynn, and cared for him until he died. He became senile and practically unable to move. Margery busied herself with laundry and keeping the fire going in the house, which was expensive due to the high cost of fire wood She credited him for having great love and compassion for her. After his death, she continued her travels Margery had many difficulties on her travels--although the travelers would have told us that she was an undesirable traveling companion. It was they who found her obsession with religion annoying. On the way to Jerusalem, her traveling companions wanted to enjoy the beautiful city of Venice, while Margery cared nothing for the city and would hardly crack a smile.. She could not stand the idea of enjoying a pilgrimage. Pilgrimages were regarded as penance, a concept which one does not normally associate with pleasure. On one pilgrimage, she refused to remove her white clothing to get the lice off of her body; everyone else, both male and female, did remove their clothes to rid themselves of these pests once they had left a city. Margery abhorred nudity and the human body itself. In this case, she preferred to put up with the discomforts of lice than to show her body to anyone. Several times she was abandoned by the party she was traveling with, but she made it to all of her destinations by finding other people to travel with her. She regarded her sufferings as necessary in order to not have to spend time in Purgatory. There has been much theorizing about possible psychological disorders Margery may have had. She clearly was unable to control her emotions, and she never ceased to do things that shocked other people. There has been much controversy over her claims to have had visions of Jesus, Mary, and other saints. It has been suggested that she had been a severely abused child, but there is no way to prove this. She was no doubt difficult to be around due to her quirky behavior. Still, one must credit her with immense courage, as well as her compassion for the weak and sick. She did everything within her power to help these people. Like most other members of the human race, she had her faults and her virtues. In her mind, she was an important pilgrim on this planet, desperate for release from her tortured mind and body. Reading her honest, vivid descriptions of the pain she felt throughout her life, one cannot but help that she deserved that peace that she so fervently wanted. She received it in around 1440. BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY SOURCES Kempe, Margery, The Book of Margery Kempe, (1436) translation by B.A. Windeatt, Penguin Books Ltd, 1985 Cantor, Norman, editor, Medieval Reader, a compilation of primary sources, HarperCollins, 1994 A.F. Scott, editor, Every One a Witness: The Plantagenet Age, Scott & Findlay Ltd, 1975 SECONDARY SOURCES Windeatt, B.A, Introduction and End-notes, translation of The Book of Margery Kempe, Penguin Books Ltd, 1985 Labarge, Margaret, A Small Cound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life, Beacon Press, 1986 LeGoff, Jacques, Medieval Civilization, translation by Julia Barrow, Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988 Tierney, Brian, The Middle Ages, Volume II, Readings in Medieval History, McGraw-Hill, 1992 ------ Copyright Patricia M. Hefner, 1997. This article may be copied by anyone desiring to use it for educational purposes as long as you mention my name and send me a copy of the newsletter. Edited by Mark S. Harris MK-Med-Ecc-art